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YA Protagonists Still Aren’t Like Other Girls
Teen media has held onto the same character stereotypes for decades. They’ve become easily identifiable, key tropes: the popular girl, the nerd, the jock — the main character. You can identify the main character because she’s not like other girls. Modern audiences roll their eyes at the trope: the Main Character is quirky, relatable, and doesn’t “try too hard” or focus on her looks because caring about looks and fashion is for other girls — girls who aren’t main characters.
But young adult literature (aka “YA”) is a book genre that prides itself on its ability to pave the way for the future. So why is it that, despite all of its progressive ideals, YA still shies away from feminine, confident protagonists?
“If you can’t find these characters, you’re not looking hard enough,” one could argue. Of course, one could name-drop specific titles that feature feminine protagonists. But that wouldn’t discredit the original point. Because this isn’t an issue of femininity being “marginalized”. This isn’t an issue of protagonists not being girly enough. Femininity is only a symptom of a larger question: why is it that YA protagonists tend to consistently represent a very specific kind of female hero, as if girls who do not ascribe to this are better suited as side characters?
This is an issue of a genre that considers itself to be feminist but still struggles to free itself from a cliché that is anything but.
This isn’t because YA shies away from femininity in general. Femininity — in terms of being “girly” aesthetics traditionally associated with women in a Western context — permeates most of YA’s world. After all, YA fantasy is going through a princess/queen phase because, well, who doesn’t want to be a powerful princess/queen?
But if the YA Protagonist is a princess, she usually isn’t a conventional one. She hates her role, she doesn’t enjoy dressing up, she hates socializing, she loathes the balls and the glittering parties, and romance is the last thing on her mind (despite romance being the bulk of the book’s storyline). This, on its own, isn’t unrealistic. Many teen girls can relate to this because many teen girls, while not being princesses, are like this. But many teen girls are not.
